1/32 Trumpeter Me262A-1a

Gallery Article by Blair Stewart on Mar 17 2021

 

      

This is Trumpeter’s 1/32 Me-262A-2a built as an Me262A-1a. When I started the kit, I discovered there were extra parts allowing conversion of the two-gun nose to a four-gun interceptor configuration. I liked the camouflage scheme of the -2a version depicted in the instructions, so I decided to take a little license and apply that paint scheme to the “converted” model. 

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The model went together with very few issues and the seams required little putty/filler. The kit has a well-detailed cockpit. The nose gun bay is also very detailed, and I chose to prop open the access doors to show off this feature. The kit includes two reasonably detailed Jumo engines that can be displayed by leaving off the engine nacelle access panels, but I chose to close these up and use only the engine intake and exhaust parts for both engines. One nice feature of the kit is the leading edge slats, which can be attached either open or closed. The slats on Me-262s apparently were spring-loaded in the open position and gradually closed as the aircraft gained speed; thus, they normally would be open for landing and would stay in that position on the ground unless ground crewmen manually closed them. Since I was displaying the aircraft with its deployed landing gear, I opted to glue the slats in the open position. 

Having chosen the rather complex camo scheme, I tried to figure out ways to apply this. I first painted the overall surfaces with Aeromaster RLM76 Lichtblau enamel. I then used modeling clay to try and mask the light blue “squiggles” in the camo pattern. Next, I sprayed the unmasked areas with Model Master dark green. When the green had dried, I removed the modeling clay masks. Needless to say, I was not overly happy with the sharpness or fidelity of the resulting camo squiggles, so I ended up enhancing most of these by hand using a thin paint brush. This was a fun build in spite of the paint scheme issues!

Blair Stewart

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Photos and text © by Blair Stewart